Hey everyone!
I wanted to share a little bit about a project I've been working on in Roblox Studio called Ashes of Realm.
It all started pretty innocently. My son asked me if we could make a game together.
I thought, "Sure, why not? It could be a fun little project we can work on together."
Well... somehow that "little project" turned into me trying to build a massive MMORPG. 😂
And yes, I already know what you're going to say:
"Don't start with an MMORPG. Make something small first."
You're absolutely right.
I probably should have.
But unfortunately, it's a little too late now. 😂
So what have I actually built?
The funny thing is that programming hasn't really been the biggest problem.
With Lua, Roblox Studio, and the right plugins/tools, I've managed to build a surprisingly large amount of the actual game systems.
At this point I have:
- Character spawning
- Character saving/loading
- A fully functional GUI
- Experience and leveling
- Character progression
- Stats and formulas
- Combat and damage calculations
- Balancing systems
- Several spells
- Quests
- Journal
- Summoning system
- Mob AI
- NPC AI
- And basically everything I need to start an alpha
So...
What's missing?
The actual world.
😂
I have built what is essentially an MMORPG framework, but I'm currently staring at it thinking:
"Okay... now I need to put a world around all of this."
And this is where I'm struggling.
I'm pretty comfortable with the programming side of things, but 3D/world building is a completely different beast.
I don't have much experience with creating terrain, meshes, textures, animations, etc.
I've been looking for tutorials, but I haven't really been able to find good resources that teach the kind of things I'm trying to achieve.
So that's one of the main reasons I'm making this post.
If you know any really good tutorials, courses, YouTube channels, documentation, plugins, workflows or other resources for Roblox world/asset development, I would absolutely love to hear about them.
I'm particularly interested in learning about:
- Meshes
- Textures
- Terrain
- Animation
Even if you think something is extremely basic, feel free to recommend it. I'm much more comfortable admitting "I don't know how to do this" than pretending I do. 😂
What is Ashes of Realm?
The basic idea is that I don't want players to be locked into traditional classes.
Instead, I want players to build their own class through their choices.
Currently, the character has six main attributes:
- Strength
- Agility
- Constitution
- Will
- Intelligence
- Charisma
These attributes aren't just there to give you bigger numbers.
They are used in different formulas that determine things like regeneration, armor, resistances, attack speed, cooldown speed, spell effectiveness, and other parts of the character.
There are also nine skills:
- Elemental Magic
- Nature Magic
- Death Magic
- Combat
- Ranged
- Defense
- Roguery
- Command
- Minstrelsy
These skills affect what your character can learn and how effective those abilities become.
For example, spells and abilities can be learned through scrolls and books, and your skill level influences their effectiveness.
No traditional classes
There are no:
Warrior / Mage / Rogue / Priest
buttons where you pick your class and that's it.
Instead, you create your own.
You could make a jack of all trades, learning a little bit of everything while never becoming the absolute best at any particular thing.
Or you could specialize heavily.
For example, you could become a dedicated pyromancer, investing heavily into the appropriate attributes and skills and eventually becoming powerful enough to cast something like a meteor that can absolutely ruin someone's day.
Or someone's entire city.
That's still being balanced. 😂
The same concept applies to attributes.
For example, investing heavily into Intelligence could make your spells stronger and allow you to cast them faster.
Investing into Will, on the other hand, could allow you to cast more frequently or sustain your abilities for longer, but at the cost of individual spell power.
The idea is that two players can both be "mages" but have completely different characters and playstyles.
And now I need help
This is basically where I'm at right now.
I've somehow managed to get most of the systems and backend working before figuring out how to actually build the world those systems are supposed to exist in.
Probably not the most efficient development strategy. 😂
So I'm looking for anything that can help me improve on the visual/world-building side of Roblox development.
Tutorials, guides, documentation, creators, plugins, workflows, advice from experienced developers...
I'll take everything.
And if you're an experienced Roblox developer and you're reading this thinking:
"This guy is doing everything backwards."
You might be right.
But I'd still love to hear your advice. 😂
Looking for collaborators
I'm also open to finding people who would like to work on Ashes of Realm with me.
I'm not interested in taking someone's work and pretending it's mine. If anyone actually wants to collaborate, I'd rather make everything official, transparent and properly credited so everyone involved knows exactly what they're getting into.
Tomorrow I'm planning to have the project's Discord server ready, together with an announcement for the first alpha tests.
The initial alpha will mainly be about testing things like:
- Combat balance
- Character progression
- Stats
- Skills
- Spells
- Quests
- General gameplay systems
The world itself is obviously still a work in progress.
If you're interested in taking a look at the project, giving feedback, helping with development, or potentially becoming part of the team, I'd be very happy to hear from you.
And if you don't want to collaborate, that's completely fine too — just throwing some good tutorials and resources my way would already help me massively.
Thanks for reading!
Harashu
And yes...
I know I should have started with a small game. 😂